Video footage has revealed Cambridge rubbish collectors dumping the contents of recycling and general waste bins into the same truck.

But the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, which is responsible for bin collections in the region, insists it wasn't a mistake.

The video was captured on dashcam by taxi driver Tariq Ahmed of newly-formed Adam Cabs, who was on his way to a job at the time.

(Image: Tariq Ahmed)

He said he got stuck behind the lorry on Cambridge's Mill Park Road for three or four minutes at around half past nine on Tuesday morning (November 27).

Mr Ahmed said he might not have noticed what was happening if he had not been waiting so long.

The 39-year-old said: "I realised they were tipping even the waste for recycling into the same bin lorry. This is something unusual. It didn't seem right - why would they empty the recycling?"

The taxi driver, who lives in Huntingdon, also claimed that there was text on the side of the rubbish truck encouraging local businesses to recycle.

What the shared waste service say

But the shared waste service said that the tipping of the recycling bins into general waste was something that had been pre-arranged.

Rebecca Weymouth-Wood, waste policy, change and innovation manager for Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, said: "Our recycling crew had rejected these recycling bins the week before for items unsuitable for recycling. So it had been arranged for them to be emptied together with refuse bins this week.

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"Collecting wrong items for recycling may cause a whole load rejection at the recycling facility that it is why we need residents to make sure they place the correct items in recycling bins loose but also to make sure containers are empty and have no food or liquids left in them.

"Other common items unsuitable for recycling are polystyrene, nappies and wipes - they all need to be placed in black bin. We encourage all residents to check our what-goes-in-which-bin section on www.cambridge.gov.uk, to ensure they place the right items in the right bin."